Best Space Sim Games on Steam
Unlike generic lists, our game recommendations use a rigorous analysis of Steam user reviews to identify and feature only the best, community-validated space sim games.
Filters & Lists
House of the Dying Sun
House of the Dying Sun is a tactical space shooter that puts you in the cockpit of the universe's most terrifying starfighter. Hunt the enemies of the Empire and bring ruin to their people.
Children of a Dead Earth
The most scientifically accurate space warfare simulator ever made. Now with Steam Workshop!
No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky is a game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated universe.
Polandball: Can into Space!
Crazy fun rocket simulator game with countryballs theme. Can Polandball into Space? Try to find out!
Wayward Terran Frontier: Zero Falls
2d space combat like no other. From the perspective of a single crew member, explore the fully destructible interior of any ship in a massive living world. Engage in space combat with no hitpoints where you know your enemy is dead when you see them fall out of their ship into the cold dark of space.
Evochron Legacy SE
Advanced Space Flight, Combat, Trading, and Exploration Simulation. Set in a vast explorable universe, Evochron Legacy offers freeform gameplay with many diverse objectives and paths to choose from.
Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation
Exiled to a deep space mining sector, you are left with a crappy ship, a laser, and a small mining beam. It is up to you to survive by working your way through the galaxy. Mine asteroids, refine and trade the ore, buy upgrades for your ship, hunt pirates... you get it.
Endless Sky
Endless Sky is a 2D space trading and combat game inspired by the classic Escape Velocity series. Work your way up from a relatively wimpy shuttle, cargo ship, or fighter, to a highly upgraded and customized flagship or to a massive fleet of warships or freighters.
Rebel Galaxy
Rebel Galaxy is a swashbuckling space adventure, with action-packed combat, exploration, discovery, trade, and “negotiation” with the outlandish denizens at the edge of the known universe.
Planetbase
Guide a group of space settlers trying to establish a base on a remote planet. Grow food, collect energy, mine resources, survive disasters and build a self-sufficient colony in a harsh and unforgiving environment.
Universe Sandbox
Create & destroy on an unimaginable scale with a realistic physics-based space simulator. Explore the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Use science to bend the laws of gravity, collide planets, boil away oceans, fire epic space lasers, and customize your universe.
SimpleRockets
I am excited to release my first game on Steam! SimpleRockets was released in 2013 for mobile and I've put a ton of work into it to get it ready for PC and Mac. It was inspired by KSP, and it offers a simpler 2D experience for building rockets and exploring space with realistic orbital mechanics.
Space Colony: Steam Edition
Space Colony: Steam Edition is a remaster of the real-time base builder and strategy game from Firefly Studios, creators of the Stronghold series. In Space Colony you colonize to survive, designing intergalactic bases that keep your crew productive, happy and defended against hostile alien threats.
STAR WARS™ - X-Wing Alliance™
A neutral family fights for its business - and its survival - and is swept up in the struggle against the encroaching Empire. You must defy the strong-arm tactics of a rival family who will stop at nothing to destroy your trading company.
STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition
The Imperial Navy is called upon to eradicate the last of the rebellion and restore law and order. As an Imperial navy starfighter pilot, you will safeguard imperiled lives thoughout the galaxy. Join the Emperor's cause in eliminating the Rebel uprising as the Empire strikes back!
STAR WARS™ - X-Wing Special Edition
Against the overwhelming might of the Empire stands a small but growing Rebel Alliance. Scattered resistance groups are uniting and what is needed most now are Starfighter pilots. Will you join their struggle to end this tyranny and become a hero of the Rebellion?
Kerbal Space Program
In Kerbal Space Program, take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that flies (or doesn’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics.
Elite Dangerous
Take control of your own starship and blaze your trail in an ever-changing galaxy. Master the arts of combat, mining and trade or venture out into the unknown across a 1:1 scale universe.
The Spatials
It's the year 5781 -- and you have been chosen to build and lead a space station in a wild corner of the galaxy! Attract visitors and explore hundreds of planets to fund your station.
StarMade
The ultimate space sandbox. Participate in epic fleet battles, form alliances, strive to dominate entire galaxies and harness the universe’s resources for your industrious empire or the destruction of others. Customise your experience, the universe is yours!
Celestial Command
Mine asteroids, salvage space debris, design your own small or massive spacecraft using individual functional components, complete missions, and engage in battles against enemies in a vast galaxy with realistic physics based on orbital mechanics or in a classic physics mode.
Starpoint Gemini 2
Captain your own space ship and roam the galaxy in 3D in this tactical space simulator with tons of RPG depth ! Space has never looked so inviting - but images can betray...It has been two years since the end of the second Gemini war, the situation in the wartorn system is further from resolution than ever.
Freespace 2
FreeSpace 2, the follow up to the classic Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War is ready to engage you in the second round. Follow the Grand Terran Vasudan Alliance further into the mysteries of the Shivans. Get your flight stick and hit the flight deck. The last time was just a warm up.
Parkan 2
Parkan II is an original concept game that will allow you to feel as a pilot of a spacecraft lost somewhere in the universe. Become a pirate or mercenary, get money to buy the most powerful cruiser and show them all who is to be the new master of the galaxy. Unforgettable adventures in the Parkan II universe await you!
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut
In the year 2299, an interstellar war rages on. In a bid to save Earth from destruction, you must take control of the Strike Suit – a revolutionary fighter craft with the ability to transform into a lethal suit of space armor.
Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
Artemis is designed for anyone who watched Star Trek and dreamed of what it would be like to sit on the bridge of a star ship. Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. You cannot play Artemis single-player!
Star Conflict
Star Conflict is an action-packed, massively multiplayer space simulation game that puts players in the role of elite pilots engaging in a widespread interplanetary skirmish. The whole world for PVP and PVE!
Strike Suit Zero
Immerse yourself in massive fleet battles where your dog-fighting skills will directly affect the fate of the cosmos.
FTL: Faster Than Light
This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.
Galaxy on Fire 2™ Full HD
A hyperdrive malfunction sends Keith T. Maxwell tumbling through space and time to fight for his life against a mysterious alien armada that is wreaking havoc.
Sins of a Solar Empire®: Rebellion
Command a space-faring empire in Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, the new stand-alone expansion that combines 4X depth with real-time strategy gameplay.
Evochron Mercenary
The life of an independent mercenary is rarely without excitement. Your spacecraft awaits and your adventure begins in the Sapphire star system.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity®
In Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity, you are the leader of a civilization embroiled in a galactic war, fighting for the survival of your entire race against relentless foes.
X: Beyond the Frontier
The Human Race had advanced to the point where we could travel among the stars, we developed giant automated machines to help us colonise other worlds, but there was a fault in their programming and they turned and attacked. Forcing us to lay a trap to protect Earth and exiling the Human race to stay on Earth once again.